The new Spalding Energy Facility looks like it belongs someplace where the winters are particularly nasty. That would explain the huge enclosure around the power plant's turbines. But Spalding, a small market town on the Welland river 160 kilometers northeast of London, boasts a relatively temperate climate, and as winter turns to spring, the ground is covered not with snow but fields of colorful daffodils and tulips that make the area a hub for the UK flower industry.
Weather is not the reason for 130-meter-long, 27-meter-tall enclosure at the Spalding facility. Its purpose is to reduce the noise that will be generated along with 860 megawatts of electricity when the plant goes online in 2004. The nearby land is populated mostly by food processing plants, but a number of homes are also the power plant's neighbors, and it is for them that extraordinary steps are being taken to limit noise emissions.
"Noise abatement is an important environmental aspect of this project," says Derek Smith, project manager for Bechtel, which is building the $610 million Spalding plant. The combined cycle, natural gas-fired facility will be owned operated by Spalding Energy Company Limited a wholly owned subsidiary of InterGen, a Bechtel-Shell joint venture.
In addition to the huge, box-like structure that forms the main noise abatement enclosure, a variety of barriers will muffle the sound of other noisy components, including the steam generator and condenser as well as the steam duct, which will be covered by a shroud 9 meters in diameter. The combined effect will be to cut noise from the plant by about 50% percent.
"We've become more aware about noise emissions over the years," says Smith, adding that "both Bechtel and our suppliers are using leading edge technology to be that good neighbor "
The Bechtel Power team building the Spalding plant also took an innovative approach to safety—always the top priority on Bechtel projects. In a move to bring safety awareness directly to the entire workforce, former Royal Air Force pilot and British rugby star Rory Underwood was brought in to speak. On a Wednesday in April, 2003, a fabrication shelter at the site was converted into a conference hall, and Underwood (who also had been safety officer for an oil company) drew on his own experience to underscore the importance of teamwork, protective equipment, and proper work processes to avoid accidents.
"There was a good question-and-answer session afterwards, and of course he signed rugby balls," says Smith. "We also gave everybody an aerial photograph of the project, so they could show their families what they were building. I think the result was that everyone, including the craft workers, got pumped up about safety."
The bulk of the workforce at Spalding is British, with workers coming from all over the United Kingdom. Like most Bechtel projects, however, Spalding has a definite international flavor. Half the engineering, including detailed design, electrical, and civil, is being done in New Delhi. And thanks to Bechtel's global procurement system, "Material comes flying in from all across the globe," says Site Manager Dave Ross.
Spalding is the third power plant that Bechtel has built for InterGen in the United Kingdom. The 780-megawatt Rocksavage Power Station in northwest England began operating in 1998 (Queen Elizabeth dedicated it), and the 795-megawatt Coryton Energy project in Essex on the southeast coast went into service in early 2002. Coryton was the first power plant commissioned under the new rules of a deregulated UK energy market focusing on merchant power.
Lessons learned at the previous power projects have served Spalding well. Under UK law, a builder must conduct a detailed analysis during the design stage to determine how to construct the project safely, and how it can be maintained safely once it's operational. "We built on our Coryton experience, to do it even better here," says Smith. "Using our big screen 3D design tools allowed our Construction and Operations greyhairs to help us build in safety improvements."
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